Men's Basketball Headline

Sunday March 4, 2012Gators Come Up Short vs. Top-Ranked Kentucky

GAINESVILLE,
Fla. -- Down by four with nine minutes to go against the No. 1-ranked team in
the country and the home crowd about to blow the roof off the building.

Given
their depth problems and the pronounced discrepancy in talent, the No. 16
Florida Gators really could not have asked for much more in their showdown
Sunday against the powerful Kentucky Wildcats.

They
just needed much more.

Certainly
more than the four points they scored the rest of the way.

Freshman
forward Anthony Davis scored 16 of his game-high 22 points in the second half,
grabbed 12 rebounds, blocked six shots and was smack in the middle of the
action as the Wildcats closed out the Gators for a 74-59 victory in front of a
sold-out O’Connell Center crowd of 12,113 at the regular-season finale for both
teams.

For
Florida (22-9, 10-6), the loss was its third straight and locked the Gators
into the No. 4 seed of the Southeastern Conference Tournament, which starts
Thursday in New Orleans. UF, with a bye in the opening round, will play the
winner of the first-day matchup between surging and fifth-seeded Alabama
(20-10) and bottom-seeded South Carolina (10-20).

“It’s a
new season,” forward Erik Murphy said.

The
Wildcats (30-1) won the old one going away, becoming the first team to go 16-0
in SEC play since UK did it in 2003.

“They
just have a really good team,” UF senior point guard Erving Walker said after
the final home game of his magnificent career. “In all facets.”

The
6-foot-10 Davis, a favorite to win National Player of the Year and be the top
choice in the NBA draft, made nine of 13 shots, scored off all three of his
offensive rebounds and patrolled the paint like the defensive centerpiece he’s
become for a team poised to make a run at the national championship.

UK
forward Terrence Jones scored 19 points, also on 9-for-13 shooting, and added
three blocks and a couple steals, while point guard Marquis Teague threw in 12
points and had four assists.

The
Gators got 21 points and nine rebounds from center Patric Young, who played his
finest all-around game of this season. Young, whose season has been marred with
inconsistency and too much talk about a six-week-old ankle injury, went
aggressively at UK’s all-star front line, making 10 of 15 shots in 35
minutes.

Murphy
had 14 points, eight rebounds and a couple assists, but the next-best Gator in
the scoring column was Walker with just eight points (on 3-for-11 shooting) and
five assists. Leading scorer Kenny Boynton, benched from the starting lineup
for the game’s first four minutes for being late to a Saturday team meeting,
scored seven points and freshman Bradley Beal, the squad’s No. 2 scorer, had
just five points after going 1-for-10 from the floor.

“We had
good looks,” Coach Billy Donovan.

Opponents
don’t get many of those against the Wildcats and a defense ranked first in the
league in scoring (58.2 points per game) and field-goal percentage (38.7). The
Gators finished right at that scoring number and shot 38.2 percent for the
game, including 6-for-22 from the 3-point line (27.3 percent).

“That’s
as good as we’ve played all year,” Kentucky coach John Calipari said.

The game
started with Jones scoring his team’s first eight points, going right at Murphy
each time. UF was down 11-4 quickly, but rallied to go up 14-13 on a Young
tip-in that was the home team’s only lead of the game.

On the
way to shooting 54 percent in the first half, the Wildcats led 40-32 at
halftime, but UF’s 12-6 spree to start the second half made it a two-point
game, at 46-44, when Young dunked off a Beal pass in transition.

UK took
a timeout and out of the break scored eight straight points to stretch the
margin back to 10, but the Gators staved off that danger-zone, with
back-to-back baskets from Young making it a 59-55 game with 9 minutes to
go.

Florida
made one field goal on 14 attempts the rest of the way.

Kentucky
had something to do with that.

“When
you get in the lane, you don’t see much except a bunch of arms,” Murphy said.
“They just have so much size across the board.”

“They
really clamped down and played good defense,” Walker said. “We also got some
clean open looks from three and just did not knock them down.”

Donovan
liked most of the shots his team worked for in the final minutes.

“About
as good as you’re going to get against them,” he said.

Against
Kentucky, some of them have to fall. The opportunities to be in the game -- and
stay in the game -- are going to be few.

“If you
do break down defensively against them, you are going to pay,” Donovan said.
“Bu they also have the ability, when you guard them the way you want to guard
them, to still make you pay. Whether it’s a timely 3 or a post move or an
offensive rebound, there’s just an incredible focus on their part to be able to
do those things.”

A put-back
by Davis and 3-pointer from Jones popped that four-point margin back to nine
very quickly, as the Gators didn’t score again inside that 9-minute mark until
Murphy knocked down a pair of free throws at 4:28 to cut the lead 11.

The next
Gators points came when Walker made a driving layup with 59 seconds to
go.

“We were
so close there when we got it to four points,” Young said. “Maybe we can use
this and look to the SEC Tournament.”

Playing
the Wildcats close for 31 minutes didn’t do anything for Walker. And it won’t
do anything for the Gators -- or anyone -- going forward.

“Not at
this point in the season. It’s about wins and losses,” he said. “It’s
one-and-done situations from now on, so we got to come up with the win.”